- One second of magic -

Sight Fishing 1 – The Training Day

Posted November 25, 2010 by byadmin

The water in the Finnish rapids is very murky. It’s almost impossible to see any fish if they are not rising. That’s why for me, one of last summer´s most memorable events was when we found this place with water that’s as clear as the Finnish vodka Koskenkorva! And to make matters more exciting, once in a while you could see huge trout cruising just two meters from the shore…

Sight Fishing Water

For me and Joona (who is the protagonist in the video), it was a training day. With sight fishing conditions as good as it gets, we found ourselves humiliated by the extremely shy trouts time after time.

I had my chances. I had around 10-15 opportunities to present a fly to the path of a sighted cruising fish. No success. One time I saw a trout around 2kg coming my way following the shoreline. I casted my #12 parachute Adams well in advance. It landed just three meters in front of me. The fish came closer, noticed the fly, started to rise towards it in slow motion, opened the mouth… And only 5 cm away from the fly, it closed the mouth and turned gently around…. Damn… The guys on the other side could hear my heavy breathing at that moment.

Open the mouth

Close the mouth

Sight fishing part 1 shows the experience from Joona’s point of view. But why does he look a bit like Bono in this video?!

OrrO: Joona´s lost fish was definitely a brown trout. The big ones in this little lake are bright rusty/orange on the belly and sides, almost like a char (or Santa Claus), but not quite as intensely coloured. Very beautiful fish!

Tapani: He definitely looks a bit like Bono, especially in the last part! Never thought about that before. Is it the glasses?
Joona: Did you know about this? Do people ever confuse you with Bono, for example when you´re in a pub or a night club?

Regarding the casting: I honestly don´t know why he didn´t use the Shadow Cast. After all, he is the only one in the world who has reached the 12th level (so far). Myself, I´m still stuck on 8th level.

I agree with you, Thomas! The lost ones never leave…
About the shadow cast – I’ve now worked out, believe it or not, the 13th level. It is something else, that much I can tell. Håvard and I developed it together, no one else knows about the 13th level yet.

What the film doesn’t tell is that I actually did use the shadow cast earlier that morning. The lake was totally dead until i tried one of the SC variations to attract the fish. Then the fish appeared one after another and this fellow finally took the fly. Too bad I lost it – that still haunts me. Goddamn it was a big trout, and the fly was a size 20 mayfly nymph.

Håvard: Bono must be using the same polaroids as I was. Next time we do karaoke I’ll wear them and sing some U2!

Hello guys.
Perfect video, this time also
Been following your blog all summer, actually since Håvard started to link to the blog at fluefiskesiden, but most this summer. Its one of these sights that i just HAVE to check out and see if there are any news Love your blog guys, and looking forward to follow you the next 50 years

Very nice! I am a river fisherman myself, but when I lived in Colorado I hiked to a lot of backcountry lakes where the sight-fishing was epic. I now hove a soft spot in my heart for sight-fishing like that!!!
One of my favorites was a 7 mile hike to 11,000 feet where there was endless cutthroat trout to be caught – I think you will like these photos – http://www.theallenbrothers.com/site/2009/07/on-the-lake-henry-lake-taylor-co/